DuckDuckGo U.S. app installs surged 18.1% week-over-week during May 20–25 as users reject Google's AI-integrated Search overhaul

DuckDuckGo reported U.S. app installs grew 18.1% week-over-week on average during May 20 to May 25 (compared to May 13 to May 18), with growth peaking at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, week-over-week growth averaged 33%, peaking at 69.9%.

The surge follows Google's announcement at I/O that it is replacing its traditional list of blue links with an AI agent that answers queries and executes tasks. DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg stated: 'Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out.'

DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page (noai.duckduckgo.com), which turns off AI features by default, averaged 22.7% week-over-week growth during the same period, peaking at 27.7% on May 24. The company noted the trend remained stronger in the U.S. and traffic gains continued over the Memorial Day weekend, when it usually sees a traffic dip.